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Overview
Oscar and his sister, Arabella, are starting their first year at the Mammoth Academy. Oscar isn't fond of schoolwork, but he loves learning outdoor sports and becoming best friends with Fox. Things are going wonderfully, until the cook's oranges are stolen and Oscar spots some MYSTERIOUS TRACKS.
Whatever made the MYSTERIOUS TRACKS has only two feet. Could it be those wild and dangerous animals called humans?
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781429947220 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) |
| Publication date: | 05/11/2010 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
| Age Range: | 7 - 10 Years |
About the Author
NEAL LAYTON has illustrated many books for young readers, including Oscar and Arabella and That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown. He lives in England.
Neal Layton was born in Chichester, England. He is the illustrator of many wonderful books for children, including Smile If You're Human, by Michael Rosen, about which Booklist said: "Layton's zany cartoon illustrations set this tale apart from the average picture book."
Read an Excerpt
The Mammoth Academy
By Neal Layton
Henry Holt and Company
Copyright © 2006 Neal LaytonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-4722-0
CHAPTER 1
WELCOME TO THE ACADEMY
Oscar was a woolly mammoth, and so was Arabella. They lived a long time ago in the Ice Age.
They used to spend their time making ice sculptures, exploring caves, and doing all the other things that young mammoths like to do. But there comes a point in a young mammoth's life when it's time to grow up a little bit and start school.
Oscar wasn't looking forward to it. He didn't want to be cooped up in a classroom and told what to do.
Arabella, on the other hand, was really excited. She loved the idea of learning new things and making new friends.
One day, a Very Important Letter arrived — by mammoth mail, of course.
That first morning was cold and crisp — and very snowy — as the animals left their homes to walk across the icy wastes to the Academy.
There was a friendly Megaloceros to help them across the glacier and signs to make sure they didn't stray over the cliff into the marsh.
It seemed to take a long time to reach the Academy, especially with Oscar dragging his big feet, but eventually they arrived at the gates.
In the yard was a noisy throng of animals of all shapes and sizes. Oscar and Arabella recognized a few faces, but most of them they had never seen before.
Suddenly a gong rang.
On the steps stood the headmistress. She was quite a stern-looking mammoth, not at all like the old auntie mammoths back at the herd. But when she smiled her eyes twinkled.
"Welcome," she said. "Here are your maps and schedules. Off you go!"
And that was it. Oscar and Arabella's new school life had begun.
CHAPTER 2FIRST LESSONS
Oscar's first lesson at the Academy did not go terribly well. To begin with he was late. Somewhere in the West Wing he had a disagreement with Arabella over the best way of finding Professor Bristle's classroom.
Oscar had insisted that he knew exactly where he was going. Arabella had insisted that his map was upside down and he'd better follow her if he had any hope of arriving on time.
Having decided to strike out on his own, Oscar found lots of interesting things to look at ...
... before finally coming across the MYSTERIOUS TRACKS.
Now, if you saw MYSTERIOUS TRACKS, what would you do? Oscar decided to follow them (of course!).
They were quite faint due to the heavy snowfall and disappeared altogether in places, but here and there were little bits of orange peel that were easier to spot.
Eventually the trail led him to a big warm room that smelled of baked cakes and cabbage.
"Hey, you! What are you doing here?" shouted a scary-looking mammoth. She was dusted with flour and waved a rolling pin in her trunk. "I hope you're not the young scamp who's been stealing oranges from the pantry."
"Errrrr ... um," mumbled Oscar.
The big mammoth plonked the rolling pin down and picked Oscar up by the scruff of his neck. "Right. You're coming with me!"
And so Oscar arrived at Professor Bristle's class — late, covered in flour, and with Cook accusing him of stealing oranges. All the time he was trying to explain about the MYSTERIOUS TRACKS and the orange peel ... but not getting anywhere.
Professor Bristle didn't seem too interested in what Oscar had to say either. He merely told Oscar to dust himself off, take a seat, and apply himself to the mathematical problem written on the blackboard.
The only seat left in the class was next to a fox that Oscar didn't know. Across the room, Arabella was sitting next to Ormsby, the woolly rhino. He was having a good chuckle about Oscar's scruffy state. The rabbits seemed to think it was quite funny, too.
"Don't worry," said Fox. "I'll help you catch up — and what's all this about MYSTERIOUS TRACKS? It sounds terribly exciting!"
Oscar immediately felt like he had found a friend.
CHAPTER 3MORE LESSONS AND JOKES
After that, Oscar's first day seemed to go a little more smoothly. They had exciting lessons:
Geography, which was interesting.
Skiing, which Arabella enjoyed.
And music.
Oscar and Fox particularly enjoyed the music lesson.
Until eventually — BONG! BONG! BONG! — it was time to go home.
On the way home Oscar introduced Arabella to Fox, and Arabella introduced Oscar to Prunella.
As they walked, Prunella talked about all the problems of being a small mammal in the Ice Age and which of the rodents she thought was cutest at school. Arabella thought Prunella was great.
And Fox told them lots of jokes that Oscar found hilarious.
"What's the difference between a woolly mammoth and an orange? You can't comb an orange!
"What's the difference between a woolly mammoth and a currant bun? A currant bun doesn't weigh two tons!
"Can a woolly mammoth jump higher than a mountain? Yes, mountains can't jump!
"Good-bye! See you all tomorrow!"
CHAPTER 4OSCAR'S THEORY AND FOX'S GREAT IDEA
The next morning at the Academy there was a special assembly called for all the staff and students.
It seemed that during the summer holiday, when the Academy was closed, somebody had broken into Cook's kitchen and stolen nearly the entire year's supply of oranges.
This was very upsetting news indeed, since mammoths were very fond of oranges.
The headmistress made it clear that anyone who knew anything about the orange theft should tell a teacher immediately.
After that, things became a little difficult for Oscar. Teachers would sit him in the front of the class and give him the "I've got my eye on you, so don't try anything" look.
And if Arabella, Prunella, or Fox introduced him to any of their friends it would be as "Oscar, the one who Cook thinks stole the oranges," because news at school travels fast.
Oscar thought he'd better try to solve the mystery.
That evening on the way home Oscar was quiet and thoughtful. Professor Bristle's lesson on addition had him thinking.
... HUMANS!
But everybody knew humans were more likely to eat animals than oranges, and, as Arabella said, nobody would take the idea seriously unless Oscar could provide some PROOF.
Oscar wasn't about to give up on the idea yet, though. The next day at playtime he suggested that they all play a new game called Catch the Orange Thief by Finding More Tracks.
At first it was tremendously popular, but when no more tracks were found, the others grew bored with the game, so Oscar decided to drop it.
With no more thefts reported, interest at the Academy moved on to other matters. Like inventing stand-up-wheeled-sleds.
Oscar, Arabella, and all their friends enjoyed outdoor sports, especially sledding. But if a traditional sled hit a rock or a bit of mud where there wasn't much snow, it would stop. This is where Oscar's invention came in.
Not everyone was convinced, especially after the rabbits crashed headfirst into a tree, but Fox remained a firm supporter. In fact, due to his enthusiasm for just about everything, Fox had quickly become Oscar's new best friend at the Academy.
Fox was also full of interesting ideas.
Every afternoon after gym with Mr. Strong, Mrs. Mop would make sure all the animals had a good hot shower, followed by fur (or feather) drying and fur (or feather) brushing.
Fox was less than keen about the whole thing. What was the point in having to wash every day at the Academy, and then dry yourself, and then having to brush your fur after you'd dried it, and then having to do the same thing all over again when you got home?
"But you don't wash much at home," said Owl.
"No," admitted Fox. "But, listen. I met this warthog the other day who said that after about two months of not washing you don't need to wash at all. Your fur just naturally starts to clean itself. And all of a sudden you don't smell and you don't have to wash ever again. Doesn't that sound great?"
The others had their doubts about Fox's great idea.
"Well anyway," Fox continued, "starting from today I'm not going to clean myself at all, and then in two months or so I'll be self-cleaning, and life will be great!"
Fox seemed quite pleased with himself.
Oscar wasn't convinced, though. He didn't like to say it but Fox didn't smell that nice at the best of times.
The first thing that happened to Fox on his first "stop washing ever again" day was that the caretaker accidentally emptied kitchen slops all over him, but this didn't put Fox off the idea. Far from it.
"Now that I've stopped washing, it doesn't bother me at all. In two months I'll be as fresh as a daisy."
CHAPTER 5HUMAN STUDIES
Oscar was beginning to really enjoy life at the Academy. He had a particular talent for sports, and Mr. Strong was very pleased with Oscar's efforts on the ice lake. Arabella was also good at ice skating, and the two of them enjoyed skating fantastic routines together, much to the amusement of the rabbits and Ormsby.
But the lesson that everyone enjoyed the most was HUMAN STUDIES.
"Of all the animals, the one to be feared the most is THE HUMAN," said Professor Snout. "This is what a human looks like. Ugly-looking brute, isn't he? And this is the female of the species.
"Their cubs are called children, but don't let their size deceive you. They're probably the most dangerous and tricky of them all."
The class shuddered.
Oscar was thoroughly intrigued by the lesson, making little notes in the margins of his notebook and imagining what it would be like to come face-to-face with a real human, when his attention was drawn to something outside the classroom. It looked like the trees had been jostled.
Oscar put down his pen and peered out the window. All of a sudden about fifteen or twenty faces appeared at the icy glass and then quickly disappeared. Faces EXACTLY like the ones Professor Snout had been drawing on the blackboard!
"Sir. SIRRR!" shouted Oscar with his trunk and three feet in the air. "I've seen humans, sir. I've seen a whole bunch of them!"
"Yes, I know, Oscar. I've been drawing them on the blackboard for the last half an hour."
"No, I mean I've just seen REAL HUMANS! RIGHT OUTSIDE!"
CHAPTER 6TRUNK TROUBLES
Professor Snout did not sound the special alarm gong or call all the students to arms. All he said was "Well, that's impossible, Oscar. There aren't any humans for miles around here. I've heard the rumors you've been spreading about the MYSTERIOUS TRACKS and the orange thief and all the rest of it, but it simply isn't possible. You probably just saw a wild boar rooting in the bushes.
"As I was saying, humans are the most dangerous animals in all mammothdom."
This was a little too much for Oscar. At lunch break he sneaked out of the playground with the rest of his classmates to look at the area outside the window.
There didn't seem to be any signs of human activity though.
It was snowing wet slushy snow, but that didn't stop Oscar. He kept looking throughout the rest of lunchtime and evening playtime, too.
And all the way home, and all around the herd until after dark.
He continued looking the next morning, all the way to the Academy.
By the time he got to class it was as plain as the trunk on his face that Oscar was not well.
For starters he kept sneezing.
"Hi, guys! How are ... ATCHOOOOOO!"
And then there was the trunk-blowing.
And the weepy eyes.
And the woolly hearing.
Poor Oscar, everyone thought. He must have been coming down with a cold, imagined he'd seen something out the window in his half ill state, and then good and properly gotten sick with the sniffles after all this silly searching.
Even Oscar admitted that he may have been overdoing things.
Arabella suggested they get him some nice soft leaves to blow his trunk on. Professor Snout gave her permission to go off to collect some. It took several hours but at last she came back with a big heap, and it seemed to help.
Owl and Cave Cat thought it might be a good idea to put Oscar's feet in a bucket of hot water and so, with Professor Snout's permission, they went off to collect some snow, which they took to the kitchen for Cook to heat. That seemed to help, too.
Ormsby thought some blankets might be a good idea, so he spent a couple of hours collecting wool from around the place, which he knitted into a lovely warm blanket. This seemed to help, too.
Professor Snout went out to forage for some berries to use to make some hot berry juice.
And then Oscar ran out of soft leaves to blow his trunk on, so Fox and Arabella went out to collect some more.
Gradually over the week, Oscar felt much better.
The same could not be said of his classmates and teacher though.
Sniff.
Sniff.
"Atchoooooo!"
Later that afternoon in the nurse's office ...
CHAPTER 7THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL
With the cold and muddy weather and the shortage of oranges, it didn't take long for the whole Academy to come down with the sniffles. Even Cook was sniffling and sneezing but somehow managed to keep going, making gentle little meals of scrambled eggs and prunes for everyone.
Oscar was feeling much better though, and he had got to thinking about the humans again. Perhaps he had been mistaken after all. Perhaps the faces he saw at the window had been because he was sick.
It had been really kind of his classmates to look after him when he was feeling poorly. It was the least Oscar could do to find some berries and soft leaves to help get everyone well again. He took his stand-up-wheeled-sled invention to carry the berries and leaves back.
Oscar hiked into the forest to collect leaves. Then he held them under his arm as he sledded down the slope to put them in a pile at the bottom. It was very exciting.
He climbed farther up the mountain, following a little track. The descent was even more thrilling now. He could take the jump at the bottom a little bit faster and fly a little bit farther.
"Wheeeeeeeeee!"
Oscar decided to climb even higher up the mountain.
Then, a couple of minutes' walk up the track, he came across some footprints. They were similar to the ones he had seen on his first day, except these looked fresher. There was a clearly defined outline of a foot, which looked identical to the diagrams in Professor Snout's class. It was a HUMAN FOOTPRINT!
PROOF! The proof he had been looking for!
Humans here, in the valley!
This left Oscar with a difficult choice: he could either rush back to the Academy now and tell everyone, or he could follow the tracks to see where they led. What did Oscar decide? I bet you can guess!
The footprints continued up the mountainside, and at times they got quite muddy. Oscar had also begun to notice pieces of orange peel or some banana skin or cherry pits. This human had been snacking all the way and leaving the litter to prove it.
Oscar began to feel a little nervous. He was about to turn back when, suddenly, he was hit by the most terrible smell! It was like dung smeared with rotten cabbage and stinky cheese. It was so pungent it made his trunk smart and his eyes water, but it was also vaguely familiar.
"FOX! What on earth are you doing here?"
"Well," said Fox, "I decided to visit everyone in the nurse's office, but nobody seemed pleased to see me. They insisted that I go and find you. Cave Bear even gave me half his sandwich if I went, which I thought was most generous of him. Would you like a bite?"
Oscar decided not.
Fox was so stinky now that most of the animals at the Academy tried to avoid him. Even Oscar tended to stand upwind of him if possible. But he was glad to have a friend along with him.
Slowly they trudged onward and upward, following the muddy trail of footprints and orange peel and discarded pits higher up the mountain, until eventually another set of footprints joined the original set of tracks.
So now there were two Humans.
A little farther up, another set of tracks joined the first two.
Soon more tracks appeared from the under-growth, until it was impossible to say how many there were.
"Perhaps we ought to hop on my invention now and warn the others," said Oscar.
"We could," said Fox, "but we've come this far, so we might as well carry on a tiny little bit farther, even if we are scared."
About twenty yards up the hill the forest opened into a clearing where the tracks led right up to a cave.
The friends decided they would tiptoe across the clearing, take a quick peek in the cave, and then immediately turn tail and launch themselves down the mountain on the sled. Even if they were spotted they would be able to get back to the Academy much faster than any human could run.
So Oscar and Fox nervously tiptoed up to the cave entrance and carefully peered around the corner.
CHAPTER 8CAVE SKOOL
In the cave some young humans were having lessons. They seemed to be very excited.
Oscar and Fox crept a little farther inside the cave to get a better look. This is what they saw.
On the walls were some badly spelled bits of writing along with primitive sticklike drawings.
So the humans had stolen the oranges from the Academy!
Around the cave were clubs of all different shapes and sizes. It didn't take Oscar and Fox long to realize the danger.
Not only had a tribe of humans set up a cave school in the mammoth lands, and not only were they stealing fruit from the kitchen, but they were planning a hunting trip to get some FRESH MEAT! The Academy must be warned AT ONCE!
Oscar and Fox began to back out of the cave. But Fox wasn't feeling well. He was feeling a little bit sneezy.
"Ahhhh ... ahhhhhhh ... ATCHOOOOOO!"
Standing in the cave entrance was a huge, enormous human waving his fists and growling. He seemed very upset.
The human picked up the wheeled-sled invention and — CRASH! — bashed it down into the ground, splintering it in two. He advanced toward them, still clutching half the sled in his fist.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Mammoth Academy by Neal Layton. Copyright © 2006 Neal Layton. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
1. Welcome to the Academy,2. First Lessons,
3. More Lessons and Jokes,
4. Oscar's Theory and Fox's Great Idea,
5. Human Studies,
6. Trunk Troubles,
7. The Mountain Trail,
8. Cave Skool,
9. Trapped!,
10. Crashhh!,
11. Finally!,